Some Nebraska Journalists Can’t Handle the Truth by Ivy Harper

“And why is it always a mistake to read online comments? Because, like a true dinosaur journalist, Don knows they’re just not “trained” to write in a seasoned, sober, reflective way, like highly trained journalists are. Journalism is the only business where the customer is always wrong. Oh for the days before that damned internet came along, eh, Don? Back when the statists could sneak bills through in the dark of night with the help of their friends in the vaunted fourth estate. Something has to be done about these annoying citizens, eh, Don?”

Well said, Buckpac. Beyond Buckpac’s laser-like point, the LJS profits from the very Comments that DW decries.

Ostensibly, the LJS makes a fair chunk of change posting Joe Q. Citizen “Comments,” a great many of which are just as insightful, clever, compassionate, and salient as any written by “trained” Nebraska journalists. I’ve learned a lot by reading Comments from regular LJS readers and I’m sure many others have too.

Truth be told, I think LJS readership would experience a serious decline if they did away with their “Comment” section since the stuck-in-the-dinosaur-days-OWH is well-known for not allowing them and/or monitoring each and every one. For goodness sake, the Comments section is where one gets all sides of a particular issue/subject, something the Omaha World-Herald cannot handle.

And yes, this sea-change from a world in which Big Media controlled “the story” to today when “The Truth” can actually be told by savvy citizens and not just journalists is, indeed, causing conniption fits inside Nebraska institutions [see NU Foundation] and “lawbbying” firms [See Mueller-Robak, Radcliffe + O’Hara & Associates] who formerly were able to keep their profit-seeking, Unicameral-controlling machinations under wraps.

My background is journalism + politics. Years ago, I wrote a “Column” in which I suggested “Term Limits for Columnists.” The idea came to me after I read a righteous column on the absolute necessity of Congressional term limits from a Washington Post writer who’d been a tiresome columnist for decades.

Perhaps, he did not see the irony of clamoring for “Congressional Term Limits” at the same time that I, and other WashPost readers, had been forced to read his stale stuff for years and years.

So, I thought, “Well, if stepping down is good for politicians, why not for their BFF’s – as Buckpac so rightly calls them – media folks.”

After all, what’s good for the political goose is good for the columnist/journalist gander, no?